


Flashback

by cybel



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: First Time, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-22
Updated: 2013-09-22
Packaged: 2017-12-27 06:50:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/975748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cybel/pseuds/cybel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had started as a throwaway gesture akin to a light slap on the cheek. <i>‘Be careful. Don’t do anything stupid.’</i> But instead of a slap, Jim had grabbed two handfuls of Blair’s riotous curls and pulled gently, just enough to get the younger man’s attention. That had been the end of the episode, or at least it should have been.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flashback

**Author's Note:**

> This story, now slightly re-edited, originally appeared in Just Another Frisky, a multifandom zine published in 1997 by Almost Foolproof Press.

It had started as a throwaway gesture akin to a light slap on the cheek. _‘Be careful. Don’t do anything stupid.’_ But instead of a slap, Jim had grabbed two handfuls of Blair’s riotous curls and pulled gently, just enough to get the younger man’s attention. That had been the end of the episode, or at least it should have been.

Then why couldn’t Jim let that moment go? It kept coming back to him at the oddest times. At police headquarters, looking up to see Blair perched on the edge of his desk, head bowed over a photo of a perp they were looking for. At home, the two of them sitting on the sofa in front of the TV, watching a game and drinking beer. Everything normal, familiar, and suddenly BAM! Jim’s mind would transport him back to that transient moment when his fingers had tangled in Blair’s hair, and he would find himself staring at his friend, feeling once more the soft strands tickling against his palms, and his fingers would clench of their own accord as if trying to hold on to the fleeting sensation.

What did it mean? Was it another heretofore unsuspected aspect of his Sentinel abilities rising up to confound him? Some heightened touch/memory phantom that fired his nerve endings in the same sequence over and over? Some kind of tactile déjà vu?

But that theory couldn’t account for the rest of his respose, like the undeniable warmth that spread through him each time that moment repeated itself in his memory, or the undeniable pleasure reliving the sensation caused. Nor could it account for the almost overwhelming urge those feelings brought with them to reach out and repeat the gesture, to prolong it, to expand on it.

Jim didn’t understand what was happening to him. Or at least he didn’t want to admit to himself that he did.

\-----–

Blair had a decided droop to the corners of his mouth that morning, and his usual buoyancy was nowhere in sight. Jim frowned at him over his cup of coffee.

“Hey, Chief, you okay?”

Blair looked up from the plate of eggs he had been poking with his fork and shrugged. “Me? Yeah, I’m fine, Jim. Why?”

“I’m a detective, remember?” Jim started counting off observations on his fingers. “One, you’re too quiet this morning. Two, no appetite. Three, you just sighed for the third time in five minutes. Four --”

“Okay, okay!” Blair held up his hands, palms forward. “I get the picture, but like I said, nothing’s wrong.”

Jim just raised an eyebrow.

“No, really.” Blair crossed his heart. “I swear. Nothing’s wrong, but somehow something’s not quite right, you know? Kind of like the prickly feeling you get before an earthquake, when your body knows something’s about to happen, but your brain still doesn’t have a clue.” Another sigh. “I’m not explaining this very well.”

Jim nodded. He wanted to put Blair’s mind at rest, to explain to him what the problem was, that Jim was sure _he_ was the problem, but he couldn’t. Instead, he offered, “Don’t sweat it, Chief. Whatever it is, I’m sure it’ll sort itself out in time.”

Blair let out a self deprecating laugh. “I sure hope so, ‘cause meanwhile I feel like an army of ants is doing maneuvers up and down my spine.” He grimaced. “God I hate those things. Have you ever seen the jungle after army ants have been at it? It’s like a hot wind blew through and destroyed every living thing.”

Jim smiled as Blair continued to talk, his usual enthusiasm overcoming his earlier preoccupation. He even managed to finish his breakfast without shutting up, and his ramblings kept Jim distracted enough to stay securely anchored in present time.

Situation normal, for the moment at least, reestablished.

\------

That evening it happened again. Jim was almost used to it now, if not resigned to the experience.

Blair was sitting at the kitchen counter writing up the results of their latest tests, a tedious series of experiments designed to delineate the limits of Jim’s hearing range. Blair had gone on and on about decibels and thresholds and such, from which Jim had gleaned the fact that his Sentinel-enhanced hearing put a dog’s ears to shame.

Frankly, Jim didn’t much care about quantifying his abilities, though he appreciated Blair’s need to incorporate such data into his thesis. Scientists liked numbers and statistics and graphs; Jim just wanted to learn to use his heightened senses to their full potential and, eventually, to gain control of them.

Jim, seated on a stool across the counter from Blair, gave up pretending to read the evening paper. He set it aside and rubbed his hands against his thighs, hoping the present, immediate sensations would override the too-well remembered ones he was again dwelling on. Bad idea: the stimulation just started a pleasurable tingling in his groin. He stilled his movements, but that only shifted his attention back to his hands. He shivered, closing his eyes as the flashback intensified, increasing his arousal to the point of near pain.

I’ve got to get out of here, he thought.

He opened his eyes, and his breath caught in his throat. Blair was looking at him, head tilted inquiringly to one side, hair tumbling loosely over an upturned cheek, backlighting dazzling Jim’s eyes with auburn sparks, framing features that he had long ago realized were beautiful. His right hand rose of its own volition, fingertips just grazing a cheek in passing, palm lingering, almost cradling Blair’s face as his fingers stroked backward to comb the wayward lock behind an ear.

Blair moved slightly into the touch, and suddenly Jim could see his own image relected back to him from the lenses of Blair’s glasses.

Christ!

Jim started guiltily, pulling his hand away with an illogical desire to hide it behind his back like a child caught stealing cookies, but strong fingers closed around it, holding it prisoner on the counter between them. “Hey, man,” Blair asked softly. “What gives?”

Hopeless. Hopeless.

Blair already knew, of course. He must have seen the truth in Jim’s eyes. Nothing to lose now.

His hand moved against Blair’s, twining their fingers together. “I,” he had to clear his throat and try again, “I wanted to touch you,” he said, feeling like a schoolboy on his first date. “I kept remembering. I kept feeling.” He shook his head, half laughing at himself, half afraid Blair would laugh at him. “I want to touch you.”

Blair didn’t laugh. Instead, with true scientific curiosity he asked, “What’s stopping you?”

Jim let out a strangled moan as Blair’s words freed him to act. He moved around the end of the counter, his right hand retaining its grip on Blair, his left rising to skim through that thick, soft, beguiling hair, curving around the back of Blair’s head to pull their mouths together.

There was nothing tentative about that first kiss. Heat opened to heat, hungry and needful. Jim groaned. It was fantastic, beyond belief. He had kissed women, had sex with them since the awakening of his Sentinel abilities, but he had never, since then, made love. Not, some distant corner of his mind realized with amazement, until now.

Jim didn’t stop to wonder how love had snuck up on him wrapped in such an unlikely package, such an unlikely _male_ package. He was too busy ravishing that luscious mouth and being ravaged in return. The roughness of Blair’s beard stubble against his face was just an added turn-on. The springy mat of chest hair revealed as shirts somehow disappeared felt almost unbearably erotic against the smoothness of his own chest. He felt Blair’s hand between them and heard the unmistakable whirr of Blair’s zipper being lowered. His own hands slid to Blair’s waist and pushed downward, sliding jeans and briefs out of the way. Another moment and his own zipper was opened; he raised his hips as Blair tugged, shuddering as his cock sprang free to bob against its mate. And then Blair’s hands were on him, holding their erections tightly together, rubbing him.

Sensation peaked and tumbled him past ecstasy into completion and from there into darkness.

\------

Jim woke to a low, rumbling vibration under his cheek and the unfamiliar feeling of chest hair tickling his nose. It took only a moment to remember where he was and who he was with, and his mouth curved into a contented smile. The vibration continued, and Jim realized Blair was laughing softly to himself as he held Jim securely against him.

“What’s so funny?” Jim asked, his voice muffled against Blair’s skin. Blair’s laughter just erupted louder, his grip tightening as Jim tried to pull away far enough to look at him.

Realizing this was not the time for fighting fair, Jim licked once at the peaked nipple under his lips then nipped it hard enough to elicit a yelp and a loosening of the arms holding him in place. A moment later he was sitting astride his helplessly giggling partner.

“What?” he asked again, gently rubbing the nipple he had just bitten with the pad of a thumb.

A shudder shook Blair and the laughter stopped. Jim laid a palm over the racing heart and felt it slow as the body beneath him gradually quieted. Blair’s eyes were wide and dilated as he looked intently up at Jim, and then they fluttered closed. His glasses had disappeared sometime early in their lovemaking, and Jim reached down to wipe tears of laughter from spiky lashes.

Blair shook his head and swallowed. “I don’t believe this,” he said. “You can’t imagine how long I’ve wanted you.” His voice was rough with emotion, and the tears pooling in the corners of his eyes when he reopened them had nothing to do with laughter. “I never would have guessed you were bi, Jim. If I had...”

Jim shrugged. “Yeh, well I never would have either. The question never really come up, you should pardon the pun, before now.”

The seriousness between them evaporated, and suddenly they were both laughing and wrestling on the floor. This time Jim graciously let Blair end up on top, and by the time the match was completed, both men had won.


End file.
